


Lost Without You

by Cats_Dont_Float



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Injury, Injury Recovery, M/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 09:38:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17465066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cats_Dont_Float/pseuds/Cats_Dont_Float
Summary: Keith gets badly injured, and Lance spends his time waiting for him to wake back up again.





	Lost Without You

One minute, everything is fine. The paladins are flying their lions towards an apparently abandoned planet, just to check that there aren't any signs of galra in the area. Lance is settled comfortably in the seat of the blue lion, flying just behind Shiro. The next minute, the red lion suddenly cuts across his path, almost crashing straight into him.  
"Keith, you idiot!" Lance shouts.  
"Help!" Keith shouts back, "Something hit red, I think we're going down!"  
"We're on it!" Shiro's voice replies, somehow still as calm as ever, and the other four lions jet off after him to try and save him. But the red lion accelerates much too quickly, and crashes down towards the ground too quickly for any of them to reach. They watch in horror as the red lion crashes into the ground.  
"Get to him, quickly!" Shiro doubts, "Keith, we're coming for you!"

There's no reply from Keith, but they quickly follow the path the red lion took, and find where he crashed. The next minutes pass in a blur. Shiro jumps out of the black lion, and before the others can even get out of their lions, he's making his way into the red lion, which eagerly opens its mouth to let Shiro inside. By the time Lance reaches red, Shiro returns, carrying Keith. There's so much blood that it's impossible to tell exactly where's he injured, and Lance hears Hunk let out a choked sob behind him.  
"Move!" Shiro hissed, rushing back towards the black lion, "Get back to the castle, all of you!" He shouts, "We've got to get Keith back."  
They don't even have time to question what to do about the red lion, as it almost instantly leaps up, somehow piloting itself, and flies off after them. Lance crashes the blue lion into his hangar, instantly rushing out, and by the sounds of footsteps behind him, he can assume the others have done the same. He spots Shiro racing way from the hangar, still holding Keith in his arms, and follows after him. And then Keith is being put into a healing pod, and Lance can't remember getting there, nor can he remember anything Allura has just said, all he can focus on is how injured Keith is. 

They're all told to leave Keith, as they won't be sure how injured he is for a few hours, and Lance slips away from the group and heads to the training room. For the next two hours, he fights through simulation after simulation until he's crumpled on the floor in a ball, exhausted both physically and mentally.  
"Lance," a voice calls softly from the door, and he turns his head to see Shiro walking over, "There's some news, you need to come join the rest of us," He says, and something in Shiro's tone makes him worried.  
"I'm coming," he says, stumbling onto his feet as quickly as possible, and almost collapsing as the blood rushes to his head.

"As you can see on these scans," Coran says as they walk in, "There seems to be some evidence of brain damage," he says those sentences, and Lance sways slightly, feeling slightly sick. Shiro puts one hand on Lance's shoulder to steady him, though Lance can see from his face that Shiro is struggling as much as he is. Hunk lets out a small sob, and pulls Pidge into a hug. Allura stares sadly down at Keith, unconscious in the healing pod, and then looks back at the rest of the team.  
"We have to keep fighting. Keith wouldn't want us to lose all of our progress due to this," she says determinedly.  
"Who'll pilot the red lion?" Shiro asks.  
"No one, for now," Allura replies, "We'll have to deal without voltron for a while." The others nod sadly.  
**************  
It takes only two days for Lance to stop coping all together. He has no idea why he cares so much; it's not like him and Keith have ever been the best of friends, yet he feels like his world crumbles around him a little more each time he glances in at Keith's unconscious body. Eventually, in a break between training sessions, Lance allows himself to walk up to Keith's healing pod. After only a few seconds of staring at Keith, he collapses down to the floor in front of the pod, and presses his head against the glass, staring in at him.  
"I'm bored, Mullet," he mutters, trying to keep everything lighthearted by using his nickname for Keith. "It's boring without you to have stupid arguments with. The whole team's struggling with you. Pidge gets bored without you to chat with" He sits there for another half an hour, mumbling to Keith about anything he can think of.  
"Lance," Shiro appears in the doorway, calling for him, "Hunk made food."  
"I'm coming," Lance sighs.  
***********  
Within three weeks, the rest of the team are starting to cope without Keith. It's hard, not being able to form voltron, but they've managed to deal with it so far. Lance, however, spends most nights sitting with Keith, talking to him about everything that's happened that day. The others are vaguely aware of this, and they make sure he eats and sleeps sometimes, but it's Shiro who decides to take Lance under his wing. He checks in on lance several times throughout each night.  
One night, Shiro wanders into find Lance slumped against the side of the healing pod, his head resting against the glass, mumbling tiredly. "Hey, Lance," Shiro calls softly, and Lance looks up. There are dark circles under his eyes, and he's never looked worse. "You really need some rest," Shiro says.  
"No, I'm fine," Lance mumbles.  
Shiro give him a sad smile, and slides onto the floor by Lance's side. "We all miss him," he says quietly in Lance's ear, "You might think you're the only one struggling with this, but we're all feeling just as bad. Especially me," he adds, gently bumping his shoulder against Lance's. "Keith means a lot to me, and I can't wait for him to wake up."  
"I miss him," Lance mumbled quietly, dropping his head onto Shiro's shoulder and letting out a deep sigh. "But, I don't know why. It's not like we were even that close."  
"Do you have feelings for him?" Shiro asks quietly. When Lance looks up at him, mouth open to protest, Shiro simply gently shakes his shoulder again and gives him a smile. "Talk to Keith when he wakes up, he's a lot more similar to you than you might think." Shiro stands up slowly, ruffling Lance's hair as he goes, and heads out the door.  
Lance watches him go with a sad smile. Maybe he should talk to Keith, but it's hard to have a proper conversation when Keith's unconscious.  
***********  
Keith has been in the pod for over a month when he finally wakes up. Everyone is in the room when he does, and they stare in disbelief for a few seconds before Shiro rushes forward to catch Keith as he stumbles forwards.  
"What happened?" Keith mumbles.  
"Red crashed," Shiro explains quickly, "You've been in a coma for the last month."  
"A month?" Keith mutters quietly.  
"Yeah, you should probably go rest," Shiro tells him, "I'll get the others to give you some space."  
"Uh, can you come with me and tell me a bit about what happened whilst I was out?" Keith asks quietly, looking up at the others and trying to avoid their curious gazes.  
"Sure," Shiro smiles kindly, wrapping arm around Keith's shoulders to support his weight. Lance watches them go with a strange look on his face and then turns away sadly.  
"You okay?" Pidge asks.  
"I just thought he'd pay some attention to me," Lance replies with a shrug, heading away from them, "I'll see you guys later."

Shiro takes Keith to his room, and sits down by his side on the bed. After a while of them talking about the minor fights they've taken part in recently, Keith finally asks, "Did.... did someone keep talking to me when I was in a coma?"  
Shiro gives him a small smile. "Yes, that was Lance," he tells him, "You heard him?"  
"I think so, but I don't remember much," Keith shrugs, "Why was Lance talking to me?"  
"He really struggled with you being sick," Shiro says, "I really think you'd better talk to him."  
"Huh, maybe I will," Keith shrugs.

He bumps into Lance a while later, as he wanders the castle, thinking over a few things.  
"Keith?" Lance asks as they pass each other in a corridor, "Aren't you supposed to be resting?"  
"I've been asleep for a month," Keith sighs, "I can't even think about sleeping again for a while. Hey, uh, can we talk whilst we're here?"  
"Sure," Lance replies awkwardly.  
"I remember some things from when I was in the coma. it was like a weird kind of dream thing, but I could hear some stuff happening." Keith explains, "I know you talked to me a lot, I don't know much about what you said though."  
"Oh, you remember that?" Lance mumbles, "Sorry, I guess I got kind of weird. I was worried about you, for some reason. Uh, I should go," he mumbles, turning and rushing away. Keith watches him go with a wistful smile.

Keith stays up all night, trying to ignore the constant drumming pain in his head, and at some point makes a decision. Early in the morning (or whatever counts as morning in the middle of space) Keith rushes out of his room, and finds Lance heading out of his own room.  
"I want to talk to you again," Keith mutters. Lance spins around, and, before Keith can change his mind, he pushes Lance back against the wall, and quickly kisses him. When he pulls away, blushing and hoping he didn't just make a huge mistake, Lance is sporting a massive grin. "I just wanted to say that it means a lot that you were always there for me when I was healing," Keith murmurs, his face still close to Lance's.  
"Do you like me?" Lance mumbles, hanging his head slightly to avoid eye contact.  
"Yeah, I guess so," Keith agrees with a smile. "Could I kiss you again? I probably should have asked the first time."  
"It's okay," Lance grins, "You don't need to ask." Keith grins, and pushes himself closer to Lance again.  
"Glad to see you boys have sorted out your feelings for each other," Shiro calls, walking past and acting much too casually for somebody who has just walked in on a scene like that. They both glance at him, cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. He holds up his hands with a laugh and rushes away. Lance grins, and reaches up to grab Keith's chin, turning his face towards him.  
"It's good to have you back," Lance mumbles, burying his face in Keith's shoulder.


End file.
